


Of Pirates and Mermaids

by lifelongpotterhead



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Clary, F/F, I suck at tagging, clary is a pirate searching for mermaids, gay female pirates are unheard of and izzy is interested, izzy is a mermaid who drowns pirates, mermaid au, pansexual izzy, this is better than it seems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-05-31 03:39:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6453928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifelongpotterhead/pseuds/lifelongpotterhead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Clizzy mermaid au. When Isabelle, part of a race of mermaids that hunts the male pirates that threaten them, somehow enchants another woman, she is intrigued and refuses to kill her. Now at the mercy of the siren who tried to kill her, Clary has no idea as to why she is alive, and cannot understand why this beautiful mermaid is so fascinated by her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Clary stared into the depths of the dark ocean, hoping that a mermaid might be attracted to their small rowboat. She yanked her hat harder onto her head, hoping to prevent her long curls from escaping their confines. It was, after all, bad luck to bring a woman on board a pirate ship. Or so she had been told. Her fellow pirates readied their muskets, pointing them into the water. They would be revered as legends if they could actually capture a real, live mermaid. And maybe Clary could get enough money from this to retire from pirating. 

She honestly wasn’t expecting to see anything. Many people had searched for the elusive mermaids, but the only ones who had ever come back alive had not found anything to begin with. Her gut clenched with fear; she was not ready to die. She glanced back at their ship longingly, but it was too late to back out. She watched the stars, preparing to see their beauty for the last time. 

There was a sudden splash a few feet from her position on the boat, and a few of the men jumped, rocking the boat. The barrel of her gun skimmed the water, and she stumbled back from the edge. She was going to die, she just knew it. Another splash rippled the water, and Clary gasped in fear. The bloodthirsty mermaids were going to rip her body to shreds. Her mouth was incredibly dry, and she found herself unable to swallow. Her heart beat so fast, she thought that the deadly creatures might be able to hear it. Her hands shook on the musket, and Clary nearly shot at the water in front of her. 

Suddenly, a head popped up above the water on the other side of the boat. The men stayed perfectly still, not wanting to scare the blond mermaid. Evidently, they thought that she was blind. The girl-no, monster-pulled herself a little ways up onto the boat, giving the pirates a view of her soft lips and large eyes. Clary quickly looked away, hearing more ripples on her side of the boat. She didn’t know why no one else was shooting at the mermaid, but then she began to sing. Her lyrics were beautiful and melodic, but incomprehensible. The woman sang in another language, but it was an alluring sound. She suddenly found herself with the desire to go for a swim, and her fear melted away into a hazy bliss. She felt safe, comforted even. A few more heads began to surface, but she found that she didn’t care. She spotted the musket in her hands, and it brought her crashing back down to reality. 

“MEN!” She shouted, jumping back a bit, “WE MUST CAPTURE A MERMAID!” Her voice did not seem to puncture the haze of the pirates, and they continued staring at the singing mermaid, who had grasped the face of the man nearest to her. Clary gulped, but didn’t know what she was supposed to do. 

The girl in front of her began to sing, and her attention was quickly diverted from her comrades. The mermaid had long, onyx hair that swirled in a cloud around her, drifting in the water. She had swirling brown eyes, and Clary felt as though she was lost in their depth. Her pale skin stood out among the dark water, and it only served to accent her lips, which were painted a beautiful crimson red. Warning bells went off in the back of her mind, reminding her of the crimson of blood, but Clary ignored them. The graceful sounds that the mermaid produced were completely enchanting, and Clary wished for the elegant melodies to never cease. She found herself leaning forward on instinct, wishing to be closer to the beautiful creature who sang such haunting songs. She found the girl’s hands on either side of her face, and she craved the warmth against her skin, long since frozen by the wind and sea spray. Her nails were a bit long, and oddly sharp. She couldn’t bring herself to care, and was too entranced by the mermaid’s beautiful lips to notice the rocking of the boat as other pirates were pulled into the icy water. She leaned forward, wanting to touch the mermaid, knowing that everything would be alright if she could kiss the girl’s gorgeous lips.

 

She was startled by the air becoming shockingly cold around her face, and tried to take a breath, only to feel as though she was suffocating. Her face was in the water! Clary tried desperately to pull herself upwards, to reach oxygen, but found that she was trapped by the mermaid’s grip. She felt herself sinking, her body becoming colder, and she was suddenly completely enveloped by the water. Her lungs began to ache and black spots dotted her vision. She watched, helplessly, as her musket sank into the water beside her. The salt of the ocean stung her eyes and filled her mouth, making her more frantic for air. Clary tried for one more desperate struggle, clawing at the mermaid’s hands. She could feel the talons on the girl’s fingers, and saw that she had sharp teeth. For all her struggle, she was only able to knock the hat off of her head, releasing her mass of red curls. The next moment, the black spots completely enclosed her vision, and she fell unconscious just in time to miss the startled look on the mermaid’s face as she watched the female pirate start to inhale the water.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Izzy stared up at the face of the unconscious redhead, a confused look gracing her features. Never had a female human fallen victim to her singing. Not that there ever were many female pirates who hunted the mermaids, but only the men were ever affected by the melodies that the mermaids sung. 

Without thinking about the laws of the mermaid Clave, she pushed the human to the surface, before swimming over to the shore. Izzy knew that she was breaking the rules, and that she was meant to kill the threat, but she could not bear to let such an oddity die without having her questions answered. 

Izzy began to breathe with her lungs instead of her gills, not bothering to take the time to marvel at the odd sensation. She rolled the girl onto her back, and could tell by the lack of the expansion of her chest that she was not breathing. Izzy pressed her hands hard into the girl’s chest, having seen many humans do this before after escaping drowning. It seemed to have little effect; Izzy pursed her lips, irritated. She pressed harder, and continued to do so until her arms were aching from the effort. Finally, the girl’s eyes snapped open, and she immediately rolled to the side, throwing up sea water. The human stayed in the same position for a while, clenching her eyes shut. Izzy retreated into the water slightly, wanting to wet her tail again. She had heard tales of mermaids who had stayed on the land for too long, and death due to a lack of water sounded quite unpleasant. 

She watched the human with interest, getting used to using her lungs, a rarely used organ for mermaids, as she waited for the girl to open her eyes again. After what felt like a millenia, the girl sat up, blinking open her eyes wearily. Her eyes landed on Izzy, and she scrambled back into the sand until she was several more feet from the water. The girl was visibly shaking, huddled in a ball on the beach. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clary awoke to a terrible pain in her chest, and immediately had to turn and retch seawater onto the beach. She was quite confused. The last thing she remembered was being drowned by a very deadly looking mermaid. Logically, she must be dead. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that maybe it was just a dream. Focusing on her surroundings, she found that her clothes were surprisingly heavy. Oddly enough, they were wet.

So had some of the other pirates rescued her? It was probably more likely than the death theory. She could feel her waterlogged clothes freezing her skin, and her soaking wet hair chilled her skin. 

She nearly gasped in shock. Her hair! She had always kept it under a hat, trying to keep up the guise of being a man so that she could find work. No one wanted to hire her as a woman, but she couldn’t bear to cut it off. If it was true that the other pirates pulled her from the water, they had probably left her on the island for being a female. It would explain why the screaming that she heard was distant. 

Clary finally resigned herself to opening her eyes, as she couldn’t stay there forever, and was starting to lose feeling in her fingers from the frozen water. The wind whipping through her clothes did her no favors either. Blinking open her eyes, she sat up slowly, stretching her aching and frozen limbs. She glanced around, and her eyes landed on another person. No, not another person. A mermaid. To be specific, the mermaid that had nearly killed her. Clary jumped back in fear, scrambling in the sand to try to get as far away from the deadly creature as she could. Her musket was gone! She was defenseless against this thing that had the ability to rip out her throat if it wanted to. And based on their previous meeting, the mermaid did want to kill her.

Clary found that she could flee no farther, having been enclosed on the small section of sand by the dark, craggy rocks that made up the cliffs behind her. She felt her hands shake. She was trapped on this beach with a murderous mermaid and no way to defend herself or escape. She was going to die, oh God she was going to die. Clary hugged her knees to her chest, trying to pull herself as far away from those sharp teeth and claws as possible. She could hear the screams of the other pirates of the ship far off in the distance on the other side of the cove. There was no hope for rescue. Clary wished she could have drowned. The mermaid was going to rip her apart. Clary shivered, trying not to think of her own blood staining the sand red. 

Clary clenched her eyes shut. Maybe the mermaid would feel merciful and provide her with a quick death. Her flesh crawled as she heard the mermaid drag her body out onto the sand. The sound of its tail dragging on the ground made her feel sick. In her mind, her body was already being ripped apart. 

“P-p-please don’t hurt me.” Clary mumbled, her terror causing her to stutter. God, she was pathetic. The scratching noise of the creature’s tail on the sand suddenly ceased, and Clary opened her eyes a fraction. The mermaid was merely a foot away from Clary, and she flinched violently, scraping her back against the rocks. Opening her eyes again cautiously, she realized that the mermaid appeared to be confused. 

The mermaid opened her mouth, and all that Clary saw was her sharp teeth, startlingly white against the darkness. She tried to retreat back farther, only to find that she was completely trapped. She pushed herself into the rocks trying to escape, and felt blood well up in her scrapes, running warm down her back. She wondered if the monster could smell it. Breathing suddenly became a difficult task. The mermaid opened her mouth again, but Clary was too scared and exhausted to try to flee again.

“Why were you affected by my singing?” Spoke a melodic voice, and Clary’s eyes opened impossibly wide in her shock. The siren could speak? She had thought them to be mindless monsters. The knowledge that the woman could speak was of no solace to Clary. It just meant that the creature could manipulate Clary and provide herself with a willing kill- or possibly meal. The thought made her shiver, and she realized that she should answer the creature’s question before it ripped out her throat.

“I d-don’t know.” She whispered, not understanding. Why wouldn’t the siren’s singing affect her?

“Women tend not to be affected by the singing of the female sirens.” The mermaid spoke, her voice hardly puncturing Clary's terrified haze. She didn't really care what the creature said, as long as it refrained from killing her.

“O-okay,” she whispered, not knowing what else could be said. The mermaid’s bright red tail suddenly swept in her direction, and she gulped, trying not to flinch into the rocks again. 

“Are you a man?” Spoke the creature, leaning in closer to Clary and bearing her fangs menacingly. She managed to hold herself still, but was struck by the sudden desire to attempt to climb the sharp cliffs that had weathered by the sea spray until they were impossible to scale. 

“N-no. I’m a g-girl.” The situation was so absurd that Clary nearly laughed, before recalling the corpses of the other pirates that must be floating in the water. If she laughed, she would suffer the same fate, or worse. 

“Do human females often share our affinities for those of the same gender?” The mermaid spoke again. This was an entirely inane line of questioning, and Clary was half convinced she was dreaming. This was far too irrational to possibly be real, right?

“Pardon?” Clary really had no idea what was happening. Perhaps she had been drugged. Hallucinating, maybe?

“Do you enjoy the company of other women?” Clary didn’t know what to do with this statement. She enjoyed the company of men, although she couldn’t deny that her face was beginning to flush at the close proximity to a such a beautiful woman.

“N-no? Yes? I don’t know.” She responded, honestly not knowing how to answer when she honestly didn’t know the answer. 

“It seems as though you might, as you are the only female human I have ever met to be affected by my singing.” Clary wished that she could disappear. She wished she could be back on the ship, away from this obviously insane creature.

“Ok-kay. Can you let me g-go now?” She stuttered, terrified of the creature’s possible reactions to her opposition. 

“Why of course.” Clary was stunned to see that she was no longer enclosed in the space against the rocks, and blinked in shock when she saw the mermaid slinking back into the water.

Long after the woman was gone, Clary sat staring at the waves. The other pirates were long gone, and even if they weren’t, she wasn’t a strong enough swimmer to cross the vast distance to the other side of the cove. Slumping back into the sand, she led her exhaustion overtake her, falling into a fitful sleep despite her wet clothes and shredded back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was chapter 2! I am planning on explaining the mermaid politics in the next chapters because honestly writing about rules of a society I made up sounds awesome! Sorry I disappeared from updating my other stories, I have been kinda unable to write the last few weeks. Also, the mermaid anatomy is not correct in terms of what a realistic mermaid would be, it is just the kind that you find in other stories like the Little Mermaid and stuff.


	3. Chapter 3

“Alec! Alec! I have a problem,” shouted Izzy, spotting her brother’s turquoise tail as he swam towards their home, most likely from the latest Clave meeting. 

“Yes, Izzy?” he sighed, “What possible problem could you have had when defending us from the humans? They die easily, don’t they?” 

Izzy looked down at the sand, and mumbled out an answer that Alec didn’t quite hear. “What was that?” Alec asked, growing concerned.

“I- may not have killed one of the humans.”

“You did what?” Alec exclaimed. 

“I just- I couldn’t kill her. I’ve never seen a woman fall for my charms, and it was rather disconcerting,” she said. 

“There was a woman? That’s practically unheard of.”

“It is,” Izzy said, “But I may also have left her in the cove.”

“What the hell Izzy.”

“I’m sorry. It was stupid, but I just couldn’t kill her!” 

“You just broke about a hundred rules, you do realize that, right?” Alec asked, eyebrow raised, “But I would rather not turn you into the Clave, since you are my sister.”

“You won’t take me to the Institute, right? Mom and dad will kill me.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “You’re my sister, Iz. I wouldn’t do that. But I do think that I need to see this woman, so I can address the problem. You wanna take me to her?”

“Yeah, definitely.” She started swimming, much faster than she ordinarily did. Alec dashed to keep up, falling into place beside her.

“You know I had plans, right?” He said, glaring at her for a moment.

“Wait, with Magnus?” She flashed her brother a grin. “We are so talking about your love life when this is over.” 

“Wait, what? No we aren’t!” Alec stammered, “I am not talking about my love life with my sister. No way. We are dealing with whatever it is that you have gotten yourself into, and then I am going on my date.”

“Oh a date is it? Are you boyfriends now? When’s the wedding?” Izzy teased. 

“Hey, we’re talking about you right now.” Sunlight fell on his face, highlighting his blush. Izzy opened her mouth to respond, a smirk on her face, but Alec cut her off.

“Shut up.”

Izzy stuck her tongue out at him and sped ahead, thoughts returning to the redhead she had left on the beach. She really hoped that she hadn’t accidentally killed the girl. 

The pair soon reached the cove where she had stranded the girl, who was lying in the sand, staring at the cloudy sky. The girl moved her arm, and Izzy nearly jumped out of the water. She hadn’t killed the human!

Alec glanced at her, eyebrows raised, “So this is your human? Unimpressive.”

“Oh fuck off she’s cute.”

“And you want to talk about my love life? Let’s talk about yours.”

“We can talk later. What am I supposed to do? What do they eat?” Izzy asked, voice becoming high pitched. 

Their conversation drew the girl’s attention, and she turned her head to look at them. Izzy watched her eyes momentarily widen with fright, and she tried to sit up, but fell back into the sand. 

“Fuck-k,” the redhead moaned, staring at the two mermaids. She picked up a handful of sand and threw it pitifully in their direction. Izzy wondered if that was supposed to be some sort of weapon. Alec snorted. “Please don’t kill me.”

“We are not going to kill you. Probably.” Alec said, pulling himself up onto the beach. Izzy smacked his arm, rolling her eyes. 

“No, we are not going to kill you.” Izzy reiterated. 

The girl blinked, and then burst out laughing. Alec looked over at Izzy, brows furrowed.

“What’s wrong with your human? I don’t think they’re supposed to act like that.” He whispered. 

“I don’t know. Maybe she’s hungry?”

The human kept giggling, clutching her stomach as she rolled onto her side to face the mermaids. She had a smile on her face, and her eyes looked unfocused. Izzy felt her face scrunch in confusion. 

“You’re reeeeeeally pretty hallucinations,” the girl said, dragging out the syllables. 

“You’re the one who's read about humans, haven’t you?” Alec asked, looking pointedly at Izzy, “What do they need?” 

“I think she needs water. Not ocean water, but like, rain water,” Izzy said, glancing at the dark clouds on the horizon. 

“Okay and what exactly are we supposed to do until then? I can’t exactly help you with your human problem if it’s dying.”

Izzy drew in a breath, eyes darting around the cove. “There!” She shouted, pointing earnestly at a coconut tree. 

Alec looked at her incredulously. “We can’t possibly reach that, and I think that your human is in no state to do it herself.”

Izzy glared at her brother, before picking up a stone off of the beach. She swam towards the coconut tree that sat near the water’s edge, and threw the stone as hard as she could. It crashed into the leaves, before falling into the sand. Izzy cringed, peering helplessly at the small redhead resting on the beach. 

Alec sighed. “Hey Iz, if this is your terrible plan, I can probably help you. I have really good aim, you know.” Izzy huffed, but swam aside, staring at the human girl.

Her brother picked a sharp rock up from the beach, holding it in his hand. He looked back up at the tree, and hurled it at the tree. Izzy heard a loud cracking sound, and a piece of fruit fell from the tree. She gaped at her brother, and dove to pick it up from the beach.

“I told you so,” stated Alec, smirking. 

Izzy stabbed through the shell of the coconut with her claws, easily puncturing the hard outside. She inched her way into the sand, using her tail to propel her towards the girl. Thankfully, the tide was high enough that she did not have to go very far from the water, and she sighed with relief. Izzy pushed the fruit to the girl’s lips. She seemed hardly conscious, and had stopped moving. Her glassy eyes gazed up at Izzy, and her jaw had gone slack. 

Izzy watched as the milk dribbled down the girl’s chin, and she tilted the human’s head up so that she wouldn’t choke. The girl coughed, sputtering as she tried to swallow. Izzy forced her to drink more, and she grasped onto the coconut, trying to breathe. Izzy gasped when the human’s hands touched her own. The girl’s skin was so warm, and so soft. 

She pushed Izzy away, and leaned onto one arm, coughing. She blinked a few times, before grabbing the drink and taking a large sip. Izzy leaned back on her tail, watching the human. The girl took another sip, before placing the fruit on the sand. She sat up, groaning.

“Ow.”

“Are you alright?” Izzy asked, staring at the beautiful girl. The only response that she got was a pained moan. 

“Izzy, come back to the water,” Alec shouted, worry coloring his voice.

Izzy frowned. She didn’t want to leave the girl, and she desperately wanted to know her name, but her tail was beginning to dry. She glanced back at the girl, who had leaned back in the sand with closed eyes. 

Sighing, she pushed herself back to the water, submerging herself in the waves. She gasped with relief, sucking in a deep breath. 

Alec stared down at her, his expression calculating. “Okay, so here’s what we need to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody! I am alive and I finally have an update!!! I gotta say, I am so, so sorry for the long wait. I am really thankful to all of the people who left comments and kudos, but my junior year was just really fucking rough. I’m not sure if I will manage another update before I am in college, because I start my senior year tomorrow and it is going to be very hectic. I do hope that I manage to be more on top of this though! I am not giving up! (Also I am sorry that this chapter is all over the place, but I just really wanted to be able to post this. It is not as long or as polished as I had hoped, but it's something.)

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that was the start of my first completely au fic! Of course I ended it in a cliffhanger, so I am probably going to stick with my style of gay angst. The start was a bit short, but I have many plans for this fic! And this was kind of based off of part of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies because I was watching it and was like you know what we need more of? More lesbian mermaid stories!


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